Blockchain detective Zachary Wolk, known online as ZachXBT, has criticized cryptocurrency influencer Zion “Ansem” Thomas, accusing him of promoting a series of memecoin “pump and dumps.”
In a heated exchange over
Wolk first mentioned Thomas while discussing memecoin bull Murad Mahmudov’s “Memecoin Supercycle” speech at Token 2049 last month, accusing him of promoting the coin to his followers instead of having a legitimate “edge” in the market.
Mahmudov was the chief information officer at Adaptive Capital, a cryptocurrency hedge fund that collapsed in March 2020 amid a widespread market downturn. He has since generated a large following for
“If you have a large account promoting a new low-cap memecoin to your followers every few days (because) you don’t have an edge and you have to use your followers instead,” Wolk said. Thomas also claimed to have been involved in this behavior.
source: ZachXBT
Thomas asked Wolk why “talking about low cap,” referring to memecoins with small market capitalizations, is considered “attractive.”
Wolk said Thomas, who has over 507,000 X followers, has tremendous ability to influence tokens with smaller valuations, which could lead to followers chasing memecoin pumps and losing money.
Thomas countered that calling Dogwifhat (WIF) to his followers at a market capitalization of $100,000 (it later reached a peak valuation of $4.8 billion in March) was “far better” than promoting a utility-based token like Chainlink. LINK) fell 90% compared to Bitcoin (BTC).
Wolk fired back, with Thomas accusing “hundreds” of low-cap coins, including BODEN, HOBBES, ZEUS and WYNN, as well as several high-profile memecoins, including those of pop stars Jason Derulo and Davido.
source: ZachXBT
“The ‘low cap crap’ you’re talking about has dominated 90% of cryptocurrency retail mindshare over the past year,” Thomas countered. “Whether you like it or not, that’s what (people) want to deal with.”
BODEN, a meme coin themed after President Joe Biden, is down nearly 99% from its all-time high in April, while HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN are each down about 98% from their all-time highs.
BODEN is down 98.9% from its all-time high market capitalization of $1.04 billion in April. Source: CoinGecko
relevant: ‘Every meme coin is a rug of work’ — Mark Cuban
Memecoin has become one of the most hotly debated topics in cryptocurrency over the past year.
Memecoin advocates say that structurally valueless tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), and WIF are a better investment grade than utility tokens due to their relatively large returns this cycle.
Critics say memecoins are fundamentally “extractive,” allowing insiders and early investors to make huge sums of money from less sophisticated retail participants and then walk away with the profits.
magazine: Memecoins: A betrayal of more than just cryptocurrencies… Or its true purpose?